Needs of NGO Communities
2.2 Substudy Methodology and Data Overview
2.2.1 Definition
For the purposes of this study, we use the following definition for an environmental NGO:
- An environmental NGO is an officially registered or otherwise clearly identified group of citizens or other public association that: (1) does not act as an official governmental body, (2) is a not-for-profit organization, (3) functions at local, regional, national or international level, and (4) pursues environmental work as one of its major statutory activities.
Pursuant to the TOR, trade unions, political organizations and businesses were excluded from the field research.
2.2.2 Substudy Background Data
2.2.2.1 General Population and Sample
According to the in-country experts' estimates, the general population of environmental NGOs in the three countries consists of 1,000 to 1,300 groups with 8,000 to 14,000 active members. Almost 20% of the entire NGO population in the three republics were pooled and another 5% of NGOs gave extended interviews to national experts.
2.2.3.2 Representative Sample
The survey sample was designed to represent the NGO community in Moldova, Ukraine and Russia based on the following criteria: number of members of NGOs, legal and regional status and location. Russia is represented by its European region.
The three national substudies identified many common features that are characteristic of the NGO community in the three countries. Consequently, one can extrapolate the key conclusions and apply them to the rest of Russia and other European CIS countries with regard to representative characteristics.
It should be noted that many environmental NGOs are involved in a limited number of national, transitional and regional social networks. Belonging to one or more networks proves to be a significant identification criterion for an NGO. Hence, the key conclusions about the state of the NGO community may also be applicable, to some extent, to those NGOs from non-European CIS countries which network with NGOs from surveyed republics.
2.2.2.3 Questionnaire Summary and Control Variables
The survey questionnaire that was used for collection of primary information covers the following primary topics:
- basic data concerning the legal and regional status of the organization and its organizational structure,
- financial status of the organization,
- details of the organization's networking and primary activities,
- identification of the main problems an organization faces and its demands for particular types of support.
The original version of the questionnaire was prepared in Russian, then translated into Romanian for surveying the Moldovan NGOs. In Ukraine and Russia, the Russian version of the Questionnaire was used. Interviews with NGO leaders were conducted in their mother tongue.
When analyzing the survey data, the following key characteristics of NGOs have been used as control variables (1) country, (2) year of creation, (3) annual budget.
The aforementioned basic characteristics prove significant in identifying the common features that could be applied to other (dependent) variables. Size of the organization (i.e. number of its members) proved an insignificant criterion and therefore was excluded from the list of control variables.
2.2.2.4 Other Remarks
In the course of the survey, we evaluated the perception of problems by NGO leaders, rather than the problem itself. In order to avoid a high degree of subjectivity in the answers, multiple cross-checking was applied to the greatest extent possible. The main conclusions derived from the analysis of the data collected were presented at the second meeting of the Advisory Group (August, 1995) and generally confirmed by NGO leaders and national experts.
REC * PUBLICATIONS * NEW REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CENTERS * NEEDS OF NGO COMMUNITIES
